That team won it all.
This team?
Well, let's just say that the Pittsburgh Penguins, the version the city's been anxiously awaiting for a couple of Stanley Cup playoff rounds and change, finally burst onto the scene Sunday in the biggest way, burying the badly overmatched Senators, 7-0, in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference final at PPG Paints Arena.
They're now a game away from the Final.
"Yeah, we are," Trevor Daley was telling me afterward. "We're there. But we also know enough that the next game, the fourth win, that's the hardest to get."
Sure is, but is anyone anywhere doubting them?
That team shrugged off an annoying foe in the first round, emasculated the Capitals in the second, then slowly but surely adjusted to a completely different style and strategy in the conference final.
This team?
Cutting through any possible politeness here, these Senators, with each passing game, are who we thought they were. And if they remain without Erik Karlsson for Game 6, after having lost him to a left foot injury in Game 5, they'll be that much less.
Unless, of course, you're worried about a team that was doing this when down by a touchdown with five minutes to go Sunday:
That team, even in a setting like this, didn't take challenges for granted.
This team?
"Our next game," Matt Cullen said, "has to be our best game."
Better than this?
"Better than this."
That team had two of the great players in hockey history performing at an optimum, pretty much from front to finish.
This team?
Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby, co-conspirators of that beauty up there, both just passed Mario Lemieux on the franchise list for playoff points. Malkin's leading these playoffs in scoring, Crosby's right behind. Together, they're obliterating once and for all any notion that they were the reason the team had gone so long between Cups. They're carving their own niche, one that even the Lemieux generation couldn't match.
"It feels so good right now," Malkin said. "But we need more."
"A lot of things are going well," Crosby said. "We've got to keep it that way."
That team had two of the NHL's top goaltenders switching back and forth all winter, one unfairly being chosen one over the other at times, but almost always with ideal outcomes, professionalism and class.
This team?
"It's nice to be out there," Matt Murray would tell me while unstrapping the tall leg pads that were barely touched in a 26-save shutout. "It's nice to be playing. I missed it."
He didn't apologize for feeling that way. He shouldn't. Neither should Marc-Andre Fleury when he's playing. They weren't the story last year. They shouldn't be the story now. Not separately, anyway.
That team was fueled by goals galore, most strikingly a power play that made opponents pay for any transgression.
This team?
Good Lord.
"Yeah, you know, we've got a lot of good players here, right?" Kessel said. "Obviously, Sid's an unbelievable player. He told me to just wait there on that one, and it came."
And that's to say nothing of Phil's work on what surely was the shift of the playoffs.
That team's penalty-killing unit stared down some of the league's most intimidating power plays.
This team?
Man, do the Senators, who haven't scored in 29 consecutive power plays dating back to the first Trudeau administration, even gain the blue line anymore?
"The penalty-killers, I think, have really stepped up for us," Sullivan said. "They're competitive guys. They compete hard."
That team had Dad.
This team?
Maybe he's Grandpap now or something. Or he's secretly a prepubescent teen, judging by the blast he was having with his scampering kids in the locker room afterward.
That team had Bryan Rust coming up big at the biggest times.
This team?
Please. You saw him, after a week of cobwebs, dominate the first period:
That team had a head coach who never made a wrong decision after a loss.
This team?
Uh, yeah.
But you know, I'm not so sure that the comparison points shouldn't end right there. Because this team, this special team has earned its own measure of respect in its own distinctive way on so, so many fronts.
That team had the best version of Kris Letang we'd ever witnessed.
This team?
It had a blossoming Justin Schultz before he went down in this round. It has Ian Cole, now slowing down to shot-blocking bruises covering his body. It has Trevor Daley, who can still barely walk but is suddenly whirling all over the rink again. It has Ron Hainsey, the kid in the candy shop participating in his first playoff after two decades of none. It has Brian Dumoulin, again elevating at the timeliest time.
This team has -- say it with me, like you mean it -- Olli Maatta:
Overcame cancer, a smashed hip, two separated shoulders and no small amount of outside doubt, right up to when beaten by Bobby Ryan for that overtime goal earlier in this series. But the fact, and it's beyond dispute now, is that he's been the Penguins' best defenseman in these playoffs.
"It's been good, yeah," was all Maatta would acknowledge, though the accompanying smile spoke so much louder.
Don't call that a comeback. Call that countless comebacks.
That team had Patric Hornqvist as its heart-and-soul most consistent contributor.
This team?
Hello, Carter Rowney.
What a story he's been, finally climbing off the minor-league buses for good at age 27. What a Game 5 he had with three assists and all else that he's brought to this lineup of late.
“It’s fun to see him and the way he’s played," Cullen said. "It’s easy to get behind a kid like that, who’s worked for everything he’s earned.”
